It's FREE RPG DAY, So Head To Your Local Game Store Today!

Morrus · Jun 18, 2018

Bill Winski said:
I'll add my rant... Went to the store close to where I live (within a mile) & was told I could pick one item out "if I bought something" (!).
I won't be visiting that store again, ever.

Harsh.

Doctor Futurity · Jun 18, 2018

I'm with TrippyHippy on this one: the potential for marketing is there, the potential to drive sales is there, but for reasons unknown it doesn't happen. In my local town the FLGS does not participate anymore, seeing it as not worth it (I assume they know their market better than I do). A brand new store has popped up in recent months which actually did participate, with a much better response/turnout. Meanwhile, there are a lot of local comic shops and they all participate in the equivalent Free Comic Book Day event, which generates a massive amount of turnout for the local shops who make very big deals out of these events. They clearly drive sales for the comic shops, and the new game store seems to understand this potential, too.....but this is a brand new phenomenon to see happening in my town (an FLGS actually doing the free game day thing).

Charles Ocenasek · Jun 19, 2018

Managed to get a bunch of mods from my Lgs that I was able to toss on Ebay. Made an easy 100. I love free days like this.

Christopher Helton · Jun 19, 2018

I GMed a Fate Accelerated game to a table full of people at the local store for Free RPG Day, and there were six other games going on over the course of the day. As a GM, I got a free Free RPG Day shirt and pick of stuff that was reserved for the GMs. I got to see a couple of my friends that I only get to see at conventions and events, now that we're all busy grown ups. I picked up a copy of the Fate Horror Toolkit. Over all, it was a good time.

Alzrius · Jun 19, 2018

No store in my town was participating, so a friend and I drove to the next town over to find a store that was.

The store itself was only two years old, and this was their first year doing Free RPG Day. I have to say though, the lady running the event was extremely nice; she said we could take three books per person, and was very cool with my friend taking two extra items on top of that (one each for two of our friends who couldn't make it). He didn't buy anything (which ticked me off a bit), but I made sure to pick up two hardcovers that I'd been wanting for a little while (Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes and Into the Borderlands) to show my support (and, of course, mentioned that Free RPG Day was what brought us there).

Elf_flambe · Jun 20, 2018

I've been taking my kids to Free Comic Book Days for years. I always make it a point to buy a couple of items to show my support for the store. The owner also usually invites a local comic book artist or two to set up a table to meet fans & sell their books. One year they were doing a Marvel Heroclix demo, and my daughter won a handful of Heroclix figures. Done correctly, such events can drive lots of traffic to your store.

Unfortunately, none of the local game stores participate in Free RPG Day (as far as I know). Too bad; we'd love to through some extra support their way...

CharlesRyan · Jun 21, 2018

Morrus said:
Harsh.

To be fair, the store Bill cites is breaking the rules. The Free RPG Day organizers stipulate that you have to give the items away, free, on request, (although you can limit how many any customer may take, even to just one). Putting conditions on it breaks both the spirit and the letter of the Free RPG Day rules.

hawkwind58 · Jun 22, 2018

My local game store was all set to have a big event on Free RPG Day, they had advertised on Facebook and their website and had significant interest. I went in on the Friday to pick up the 5e adventure to run it on the Saturday only to be told that it wasn't going to happen. Their shipment had arrived from the distributor and the Free RPG Day kit wasn't included. The owner rang the distributor and was told that they (the distributor) had been short-shipped so he (the owner) missed out. Apparently he was one of the "lucky" two to miss out on the kit. And the distributor didn't bother to inform him, they just waited for him to ring to find out what was going on.

Tony Oseland · Jun 24, 2018

Myself, I have the great pleasure of living over an hour away from any game store where they might have participated. No sympathy from anywhere when I asked about what WE are supposed to do on FRPGD, so I have given up on this as a lost project. I'm glad those living in urban and suburban environments were allowed to participate, but shouldn't there be a way the rest of us could pay the postage and get a broad selection of the free materials?

hawkwind58 · Jun 24, 2018

Not all but some of the companies make their Free RPG Day material available as a free pdf to download, so you should be able to pick some of it up that way.